Any tricks to ship clear, bottle primed beer to a competition?

[jack13]

The title said it all: Even if you have a nice clear beer in a bottle, wouldn't the jostling that takes place during shipping kick up the sediment created by the bottle priming, resulting in the judges seeing a cloudy beer?

One option is to force carbonate in the keg and dispense into a bottle.

Any other ways to ship clear beer?

 

[grampamark]

Some guy named Jack sent me 3 of these last month, all the way from Delaware. Does this look less clear than when you boxed it up for shipment?

 

[Steveruch]

Ship it as early as possible to give it a chance to clear at the competition site.

 

[bkboiler]

I believe u can filter and then prime and add a very small amount of a neutral highly flocculant yeast that will not consume additional fermentables (such as maltotriose).

 

[jack13]

Some guy named Jack sent me 3 of these last month, all the way from Delaware. Does this look less clear than when you boxed it up for shipment?

View attachment 662528

Based on the looks of that beer, you're taking your life into your own hands.

On a completely unrelated note...

I'm picturing sending in a cream ale to a competition. That cream ale should be very clear. But if the time between the shipping/jostling and the judging isn't that long, that cream ale will likely be semi-cloudy at judgment time from the sediment.

 

[jack13]

Steve and bk: Good ideas!

 

[bkboiler]

Also remember that visual appearance is the smallest component of judging scores. Most of the folks pouring the beers *should* be aware to chill in advance and pour carefully although it's not always feasible at an event.

 

[passedpawn]

If you use the right yeast for carbonating, and just enough of it, you'd never notice it's in there (I'd suggest a english yeast like the dry yeast S-04). Of course, if you get hop and yeast dregs into your bottling bucket, yer screwed.

Some commercial breweries ship bottle-carbonated beer. Ever have one of these (yes, even the cans contain yeast at the bottom - look next time you drain one):